current econ criteria spreadsheet attached -- Fw: Proposed agenda for tomorrow's call
Hodg...@epamail.epa.gov
_________________________________
Don Hodge | Agriculture Program
Region 9 | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
75 Hawthorne Street (AIR-6) | San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 972-3240 | hodg...@epa.gov
----- Forwarded by Don Hodge/R9/USEPA/US on 09/13/2011 11:43 AM -----
From: Don Hodge/R9/USEPA/US@EPA
To: scs001econo...@googlegroups.com
Date: 09/13/2011 09:35 AM
Subject: Proposed agenda for tomorrow's call
Sent by: scs001econo...@googlegroups.com
Econ subcommittee members,
With Eric out for a while due to a serious family medical issue, I thought I would try to keep our process moving. Below is a proposed agenda for tomorrow's call; please reply with any suggested additions or changes. Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you on the call.
Agenda,
Introductions (all, 5 minutes)
Announcements -- anything that would be beneficial for the group to know (all, 10 minutes)
Review -- Have we captured the important principles and criteria for the economic aspect of a sustainable agricultural system? Anything missing? Redundant? Excessive? (discussion, 20 minutes)
Next steps: defining metrics and tiers (30 minutes)
Next steps: filling in remaining columns -- who, which criteria, by when? (discussion, 15 minutes)
Wrap up and action items (Don, 5 minutes)
_________________________________
Don Hodge | Agriculture Program
Region 9 | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
75 Hawthorne Street (AIR-6) | San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 972-3240 | hodg...@epa.gov
From: Eric Landen <er...@landenconsulting.com>
To: scs001econo...@googlegroups.com
Date: 09/13/2011 08:17 AM
Subject: Re: Report from World Watch
Sent by: scs001econo...@googlegroups.com
Thanks Jesse & Ryan, both these articles are dialed right in to the Econ work ---
Also FYI: as one of my team's consulting projects, am setting up a pilot PES (Payments for Ecosystem Services) program where the regional agricultural community will be a major seller of sustainable-ag-driven ecosystem services to buyers elsewhere in the local watershed --- they might be interested in test-driving components of our Sustainable Ag Standard and it might be a good demo/showcase-project for the overall standard (the PES project is in the feasibility-study/planning stage and won't get going until 2012 at earliest, so the timing might be perfect as our Standard moves along...)
Will keep you posted as this evolving story develops...
-- Eric
On Sep 9, 2011, at 10:27 AM, Ryan Rivard wrote:
I also recently read this article and it might be interesting for what we are doing, if you haven't already seen it.
Thanks
http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/article3315.html
On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 10:33 AM, <jesse.s...@mchsi.com> wrote:
I noticed this today -- can't quite get to the article on their site but it seems very relevant to our work. Maybe Jennifer could ask for the article - it is free to the press maybe they would give it to Leonardo.
Jesse
Valuing Nature’s Services Today Is an Investment in the Future
New article identifies ways in which payments for ecosystem services (PES) help protect biodiversity and mitigate climate change
Washington, D.C.—Countries around
the world are embracing “payments for ecosystem services” (PES) as a
verifiable approach to protecting biological diversity and mitigating climate
change, according to research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for
the publication Vital
Signs Online. PES are financial
arrangements designed to protect the many benefits that are provided by
the natural environment. They include payments for projects that invest
in biodiversity and watershed protection, ecosystem restoration, and carbon
capture in forests.
“Nearly 60 percent of all ecosystem services are being degraded or used
in an unsustainable manner,” said Alexander Ochs, Director of Climate
and Energy at Worldwatch. “With PES, we can put a monetary value on these
important services, from water filtration to carbon sequestration, to ensure
that they are being properly sustained for the benefit of both people and
the planet.” PES schemes aim to encourage a net increase in benefits that
would not otherwise have occurred without the financial incentive, a concept
known as providing “additionality.”
At the international level, two initiatives—the United Nations’ Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) Programme and
the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility—were established in
2008 to assist in the development of a global PES scheme that would compensate
developing countries for their efforts to conserve tropical forests, which
act as important carbon “sinks.” The international community has discussed
scaling up REDD finance to $30 billion per year. Several wealthier governments,
including Norway and Germany, are providing funds to help developing countries
build the capacity to handle a REDD market as well as to provide financial
incentives to the best performers.
In the absence of a fully defined REDD marketplace, the primary markets
for ecosystem services are currently in the areas of watershed and biodiversity
protection, with a combined global value of at least $11 billion in 2008.
The largest national markets for services to protect and enhance water
quality are China and the United States, respectively.
Worldwide, payments for biodiversity totaled $2.4 billion to $4 billion
in 2010. Although PES growth has slowed in countries that already have
programs in place for biodiversity protection, other countries are adopting
new programs and policy frameworks for biodiversity payment mechanisms.
“In 2010, at least 45 payment programs for biodiversity were operational
across the world and 27 programs were in development,” said Will Bierbower,
the author of the article and a former Climate and Energy researcher at
Worldwatch.
Factors driving the development of PES schemes include the scale of the
ecosystem service being provided, the number of buyers and sellers involved,
and the degree to which there is an immediate financial payoff. The design
of a PES arrangement is shaped in part by the prevailing political, cultural,
and institutional arrangements in a country or region; however, governments
have typically been the key players in establishing most PES arrangements.
“China’s Sloping Land Conversion Program is a good example of a government-backed
PES scheme that was enacted in tandem with regulations,” said Bierbower.
“In 1999, the government started paying farmers to restore land to its
original ecological state, following decades of mismanagement that had
led to topsoil erosion and downstream flooding. In the first seven years,
rural farmers received some $7.7 billion in payments and enrolled some
7.2 billion hectares of cropland in what has become one of the largest
PES schemes in the world.”
Further highlights from the article:
- Globally, payments for watershed services that protect and enhance water quality were worth an estimated $9.25 billion in 2008.
- Payments for biodiversity protection, restoration, and management were worth an estimated $1.8 billion to $2.9 billion in 2008. By 2010, these payments had reached $2.4 to $4 billion worldwide.
- PES carbon sequestration projects in the world’s forests were worth an estimated $37 million in 2008, up from $7.6 million in 2006.
- The volume of transactions for carbon sequestration projects in forests increased from 5.1 megatons of carbon dioxide in 2007 to 5.3 megatons in 2008.
- In the United States, PES transactions total $1.5 billion to $2.4 billion annually.
- Deforestation, which occurs primarily in tropical forest regions, accounts for an estimated 12–20 percent of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
To obtain a free copy of this article please contact Supriya Kumar at sku...@worldwatch.org.
About the Worldwatch Institute: Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 20 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.
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Ryan Rivard
Iroquois Valley Farms, LLC
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